THE NEOCLASSICAL CRITICISM JOHN DRYDEN & ALEXANDER POPE

1. THE NEOCLASSICAL CRITICISMJOHN DRYDEN & ALEXANDER POPE

2. Neoclassicism • Neoclassicism refers to a broad tendency in literature and art enduring from the early seventeenth century until around 1750. • It comprised a return to the classical models, literary styles, and values of ancient Greek and Roman authors. • The neoclassicists reacted sharply against what they perceived to be the stylistic excess, superfluous ornamentation, and linguistic over-sophistication of some Renaissance writers. • The neoclassicists reacted against this idealistic tendency in Renaissance poetics.

3. Neoclassicism • Unlike Renaissance critics, the neoclassicists were less ambiguous in their emphasis upon the classical values of objectivity, impersonality, rationality, decorum, balance, harmony, proportion, and moderation. • The neoclassical writers reaffirmed literary composition as a rational and rule-bound process, requiring a great deal of craft, labour, and study. • They tended to insist on the separation of poetry and prose, the purity of each genre, and the hierarchy of genres.

4. Neoclassicism • Unlike Aristotle, the neoclassicists generally placed the epic above tragedy. • The typical meters and verse forms of the neoclassical poets were the alexandrine in France and the heroic couplet in England. • Much neoclassical thought was marked by a recognition of human finitude.

5. Neoclassical Concepts:Imitation • Two of the concepts central to neoclassical literary theory and practice were “imitation” and “nature,” which were intimately related. • Imitationhas two senses in the neoclassical criticism • In one sense, it refers to the external world and, primarily, of human action. • This sense was a reaffirmation of the ideals of objectivity and impersonality. • It also referred to the imitation of classical models, especially of Homer and Vergil. • These two aspects of imitation were often identified with the concept of “Nature”

6. Neoclassical Concepts:Nature • The concept of Nature had a number of senses. • In one sense, it referred to the harmonious and hierarchical order of the universe, including the various social and political hierarchies within the world. • In this vast scheme of nature, everything had its proper and appointed place. • It also referred to human nature: to what was central, timeless, and universal in human experience. • “Nature” had a deep moral significance, comprehending the modes of action that were permissible and excluding certain actions as “unnatural”.

7. Neoclassical Concepts:Nature • The neoclassical vision of nature was very different from the meanings later given to it by the Romantics. • The neoclassical writers saw the ancients as having already expressed the fundamental laws of nature. • Hence, modern writers should follow the path of imitation already paved by the ancients.

8. Neoclassicism in England • The main streams of English neoclassical criticism were most pronounced by • John Dryden • Alexander Pope

9. John Dryden • Samuel Johnson termed Dryden “the father of English criticism,” • He affirmed that modern English prose begins with Dryden’s Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668). • Dryden’s critical work was extensive, treating of various genres such as epic, tragedy, comedy and dramatic theory, satire, the relative virtues of ancient and modern writers, as well as the nature of poetry and translation. • Dryden was also a poet, dramatist, and translator.

10. John Dryden • Dryden’s Essay of Dramatic Poesy is written as a series of debates on drama. • Theses debates are conducted by four speakers – Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius, and Neander. • The speakers have conventionally been identified with four of Dryden’s contemporaries, with Neander (“new man”) representing Dryden himself.

11. John Dryden • Dryden attempted to strike a compromise between the claims of ancient authority and the needs of the modern writer. • This compromise includes four main debates, concerning: • The Moderns vs. the Ancients • the classical “unities,” of time, place, and action; • The French vs. English Theatre concerning the rigid classical distinction between various genres, such as tragedy and comedy; • The Use of rhyme in drama.

12. 1st Issue: The Moderns Vs. The Ancients • The first issue of debate concerns the relationship of the Moderns with the Ancients: • Should the moderns imitate the Ancients closely • Can they surpass them? • One man argues that the moderns are but ill copiers of the Ancients. • our merits are their merits; our faults are our own. • Another says we have improved art, because we have two sources to imitate: • Nature and the Ancients, while they had only nature. • All agree that the Ancients are to be honored and heeded.

13. 2nd Issue: The Three Unities • The four men consider the three unities of time, place, and action. • The unities were derived from statements made by Aristotle and Horace. • They were actually codified by such French neoclassicists. • The unity of time: stage time must mimic real time as closely as possible; no more than twelve hours. • The unity of place: action on the stage should be confined to a single space; it should not leap from city to city or locale to locale. • The unity of action, there should be one main plot that is not complicated by the interweaving of subplots.

14. 3rd Issue: the French vs. English theatre • Dryden also undertakes an influential assessment of the English dramatic tradition. • The four men compare and contrast the French and English theatre: • Most French plays follow the unities, most British plays do not. • French plays are more unified and decorous; British plays more lively (e.g., Shakespeare breaks all the unities). • For Dryden, British drama is better because: • Though it respects the Ancients, it is not afraid to part from them when necessary and to create their own archetypes and their own literary traditions. • As against the neoclassical virtues of French drama, Neander urges the virtues of English tragi-comedy, thereby overturning nearly all of the ancient prescriptions concerning purity of genre, decorum, and unity of plot.

15. 4th Issue: The Use of Rhyme in Drama • In the final debate, concerning rhyme, Dryden suggests that blank verse and rhyme are equally artificial. • Dryden commends rhyme for the delight it produces. • For Dryden, delight is the chief end of poetry as “only instructs as it delights.” • Dryden still regards poetry as essentially a rational activity, with an ethical and epistemological responsibility.

16. Alexander Pope (1688–1744) • Pope’s An Essay on Criticism (1711) is perhaps the clearest statement of neoclassical principles in any language. • It expresses a world view which synthesizes elements of a Roman Catholic outlook with classical aesthetic principles and with deism. • An Essay on Criticism is written in verse, in the tradition of Horace’s Ars poetica. • Pope here not only delineates the scope and nature of good literary criticism, but redefines classical virtues in terms of “nature” and “wit,” as necessary to both poetry and criticism.

17. Pope’s Concepts of Nature & Wit • Pope’s sense of Nature has many facets. • On a cosmic level, Nature signifies the providential order of the world and the universe, a hierarchy in which each entity has its proper assigned place [Great Chain of Being] • Nature can also refer to what is normal, central, and universal in human experience, encompassing the spheres of morality and knowledge, the rules of proper moral conduct as well as the archetypal patterns of human reason. • Pope’s equates the classical literary and critical traditions with nature, and to sketch a redefined outline of literary history from classical times to his own era. • Pope insists that the rules of nature were merely discovered, not invented, by the ancients. • Pope’s advice, for both critic and poet, is clear: “Learn hence for Ancient Rules a just Esteem; / To copy Nature is to copy Them”.

18. Pope’s Concepts of Nature & Wit • Pope’s Concept of Wit • The word “wit” in Pope’s time could refer in general to intelligence; • Italso meant “wit” in the modern sense of cleverness, as expressed in figures of speech and especially in discerning unanticipated similarities between different entities.

19. The Proper Role of the Critic • Pope points out that both the best poetry and the best criticism are divinely inspired. • He sees the endeavour of criticism as a noble one. • The critic must be conversant with every aspect of the author whom he is examining. • Pope insists that the critic bases his interpretation on the author’s intention. • The critic has to recognize the overall unity of a work, and thereby to avoid falling into partial assessments based on the author’s use of poetic conceits, ornamented language, meters, as well as judgments which are biased toward either archaic or modern styles or based on the reputations of given writers. • The critic needs to possess a moral sensibility, as well as a sense of balance and proportion.

20. The Proper Role of the Critic • For Pope, the qualities of a good critic are primarily attributes of humanity or moral sensibility rather than aesthetic qualities. • The only aesthetic quality that the critic needs is “taste.” • Pope’s central advice to both poet and critic is to “follow Nature”. • The features attributed to Nature include permanence or timelessness and universality. • Nature is a force which expresses the power of the divine of expressing the order, harmony, and beauty of God’s creation. • Nature provides the eternal and archetypal standard against which art must be measured. • The critic’s task here is to recognize the superiority of great wit.

21. The Proper Role of the Poet • The poet task is twofold: • He has to find the expression that will most truly convey nature. • He has to ensure that the substance he is expressing is indeed a “natural” insight or thought. • What the poet must express is a universal truth which we will instantly recognize as such. • Pope urged organic unity and wholeness. • For Pope, the expression or style must be suited to the subject matter and meaning. • Pope advises both poet and critic to avoid extremes. • According to him, those who go to excess in any direction display great pride or little sense.